Alleged tax evasion by MPs

Message sent on behalf of Michael Armstrong
Regards
L Howe
Freedom of Information Team

The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may
be subject to legal professional privilege. Unless you are the intended
recipient or his/her representative you are not authorised to, and must
not, read, copy, distribute, use or retain this message or any part of it.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately.

HM Revenue & Customs computer systems will be monitored and communications
carried on them recorded, to secure the effective operation of the system
and for lawful purposes.

The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs are not liable for any
personal views of the sender.

This e-mail may have been intercepted and its information altered.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Mr Walker

I refer to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request on 24 May 2009 as
follows:

"Of late, there have been several media reports of Members of Parliament
allegedly evading taxes. What is HMRC policy as regard acting on media
reports of this nature? Do you pursue investigations unprompted or do
you wait until someone makes a formal complaint to you?"

Before starting any formal enquiry into a tax return we carry out a full
programme of checks, including:

* looking at information contained in the tax return
* looking at the supporting information sent with any claim
* comparing it with information we hold from other sources.

We routinely check a proportion of all tax returns received as part of
our tax compliance procedures. We also check returns that are
identified through risk assessment. Information in media reports and
submitted by individuals will inform our risk assessment. After these
checks, if it is apparent that the tax return, or claim, may be
incorrect or incomplete, or if a fuller explanation is needed, HMRC may
start an enquiry.

The purpose of an enquiry is to check someone's tax position. We examine
the information on the return and that supplied during the enquiry.
Undertaking an enquiry is about reconciling the details HMRC holds with
the information that the taxpayer provides - it does not imply that the
tax return is incorrect. Enquiries enable us to help customers to
correct their misunderstandings and to improve our identification of
risk as well as to find and tackle deliberate non-compliance. Our
enquiries also act as a deterrent to the non-compliant and an assurance
to the compliant majority that we are ensuring that the burden of
taxation falls fairly on all those who should be paying.

As for any other taxpayer, MPs' tax returns may give rise to an enquiry
and the same considerations apply to the selection of cases. I hope you
will appreciate that MPs are entitled to the same taxpayer
confidentiality as any other taxpayer or groups of taxpayers and that I
am therefore unable to indicate whether HMRC plan to undertake any such
enquiries into MPs' tax returns.

If you are not happy with this reply you may request a review by writing
to HMRC FOI Team, Room 4/52, 100 Parliament Street London SWIA 2BQ. You
must request a review within 2 months of the date of this letter. It
would assist our review if you set out which aspects of the reply
concern you and why you are dissatisfied.

If you are not content with the outcome of an internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The
Information Commissioner will not usually consider a case unless you
have exhausted the internal review procedure provided by HMRC. He can be
contacted at The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Aidan Callan
Freedom of Information Team
Room 4/52, 100 Parliament St., London SW1A 2BQ
[email address]
The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may be subject to legal professional privilege. Unless you are the intended recipient or his/her representative you are not authorised to, and must not, read, copy, distribute, use or retain this message or any part of it. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately.

HM Revenue & Customs computer systems will be monitored and communications carried on them recorded, to secure the effective operation of the system and for lawful purposes.

The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs are not liable for any personal views of the sender.

This e-mail may have been intercepted and its information altered.

show quoted sections